CAUGHT WITH THE GOODS
It was morning. Captain Austin, won over by the arguments of Jay
Thacker, one of his crack divers, had decided to postpone the return
trip to Bridgeford twenty-four hours in order to give the Brighton lad
a chance to work out a plan he had hatched while exploring the wreck of
the submerged U-boat.
"You say you want us to anchor directly over the submarine and play you
out a hundred feet of hydraulic hose?" asked the captain of the _Nemo_
as he greeted Jay and Dick on deck after morning mess.
"Right you are," chirped Jay, "and I want the hose attached to the air
pump just the same as you hitch up my own air lines--only I want all
the pressure of air you can put behind this new hose line."
"You shall have it, my boy," replied the captain, and gave orders to
various members of his crew to rig out the apparatus for which Jay had
called.
"What's all this hose line?" chortled Larry Seymour as he watched Jay
preparing again to go over the side of the _Nemo_. "Looks as though you
are going down to spray the mermaids with a little hot air."
"Nothing doing, kiddo; it's a vacuum cleaner to scrub up Father
Neptune's parlor," remarked Dick, who had been let in on Jay's plans.
Weddigen sauntered up like a pouter pigeon.
"Nothing new about this," said he to members of the crew standing
beside him. "This bird Thacker knows his onion; he's simply taking down
a line of hose and proposes to bore his way into the stranded submarine
with a line of compressed air. All you got to do is turn on the air,
point the nozzle of the hose into the sand, and away she goes."
Jay, getting ready to adjust his helmet, overheard the remark. How did
Weddigen know it was a U-boat?
"You have it O. K., Weddigen; that's just exactly what I'm going to try
and do," he replied pleasantly. At the same time he was asking himself:
"Has Weddigen overheard about the plans in the U-boat?"
It was a bold plan, but quite a feasible plan after all. Taking
advantage of the undertow that snatched up every loosened particle of
sand and scurried it away, Jay proposed to do a little excavating in
the neighborhood of the U-boat and leave it to the currents themselves
to exhume the lost ship--at least to free it far enough for the divers
to get inside and salvage the plans so much wanted by the U. S.
Government.
And now Jay was ready to be off. His new "vacuum cleaner" was ready and
the air pump working smoothly.
"Good luck to you," called out Captain Austin as Dick prepared to clamp
on his chum's helmet.
The youth smiled and in a moment shuffled to the side and was over and
gone deep down into the embrace of the green sea, his air hose fastened
at his belt. Pretty soon he was on bottom and groping his way along
from hummock to hummock, now stumbling and now lifted by the whirling
currents.
Presently he came upon the periscope pole and the mushroom anchor he
had left below the previous night. But now the anchor sat deep down
in a wide depression that opened out of the floor of the sea like the
crater of a volcano.
"Bless my soul if that undertow hasn't been working for me all night,"
he observed while noting that the sand had been scooped out in huge
quantities in every direction radiating from the periscope pole.
Which made it that much easier for the submarine excavator. The
digging, of course, but not the actual work; for the deadly currents
were dragging the youth to and fro until he reeled and tottered like a
drunken man. But Jay had come prepared so that he would not again be
subjected to the terrific mauling he had received before. This time he
had piled on lead until he was heavily weighted down. A canvas belt,
slung from hips to armpits, with pockets, held close to fifty pounds of
metal. In addition he had fastened around each ankle a bag containing
another twenty-five pounds.
As he prepared to swing his air hose into action Jay found the sea
clutching and tearing viciously at his own air and signal lines and
he made sure that they were intact and working perfectly before he
gave the signal for the air to be turned into the "spray" line that he
carried.
At last the youth was ready for his experiment. Jay had no idea how his
plan would turn out, for, while he had heard of this kind of work and
knew of its practicability, he had never tried it out for himself. It
was his purpose to start the sand shifting in the belief that once the
movement was under way the freakish undertow and cross-currents would
come to his assistance and facilitate the task of unearthing the U-boat.
"Here goes," he cried as he sat down on the sandy bottom and, holding
the nozzle of the hose away from him at an oblique angle of forty
degrees, turned on the air full force.
Instantly the sea began to boil up around him like a young geyser.
The sand was swept and swirled in every direction by the column of
compressed air that was boring relentlessly into everything it touched.
The young diver could feel his feet sinking slowly into an aperture as
the sea bottom was scooped up and distributed into the yellow clouds
that filled all the space of water around the periscope pole.
A new danger confronted the youth. Unless he exercised extreme caution
he might dig his own grave. The shifting sand might collect around his
own body and imbed him quickly unless he kept it shifting away from
him instead of around him. The thought of being buried alive made him
shudder for an instant, but he dismissed it and set himself carefully
to keep the moving sand in front instead of behind him.
He resolved to keep on the move, holding the air hose ever far in front
and drawing himself, as best he could shift the weights that held him
down, in a wide circle around the periscope pole, throwing the sand
off to the left. In this way he hoped to make an excavation that would
gradually bring the conning tower of the U-boat above the level of the
sea bottom. Backing steadily all the time on the circumference of his
circle, he kept the sand moving ever outward; and move it did with the
assistance of the undertow that aided and abetted the work of the air
hose just as Jay had anticipated it would do.
Despite the perils of the undertaking Jay persisted and soon had worked
himself completely around to the starting-point, a complete circle
having the periscope pole of the U-boat as the hub of the imaginative
wheel. By the feel of it under his feet and by thrusting his right foot
out into the hole that he had dug Jay could tell his efforts had not
been in vain. Considerable sand must have been shifted.
He decided to turn off the compressed air and await the clearing of
the water so that he could see what he had accomplished. He had by now
been down for considerable time and was commencing to feel the effects
of his hard toil, the wear and tear of the sea, and the weight of his
added incumbrances. Nevertheless, since his breathing was still free
and easy he decided he could risk a few more minutes anyway to view the
results of his handiwork.
By and by the sand clouds began to settle and the yellow sedimentation
to subside. Imagine his joy when he found that he had successfully dug
a great excavation right over the deck of the U-boat amidships, with
the conning tower standing out entirely freed of all sand investiture.
"Good enough," he told himself gleefully. "And now to get inside the
U-boat before the sands shift back again."
Reluctantly he gave the signal to be raised away after lashing the air
hose with which he had successfully accomplished the task fast to the
conning tower of the U-boat.
By now he could feel his heart pounding fiercely while a fitful
darkness obscured his sight. Well he knew these symptoms--he had
stayed down longer than he should have. But with his signal for a lift
he felt the cables tighten and then he was swept along through the
water toward the surface. Soon they were hauling him over the side of
the _Nemo_ just when his senses were reeling.
"Boy, you stayed too long," he heard Captain Austin saying as the
helmet was lifted and he breathed again the pure air of the surface.
He could only nod a reply. But within a few minutes he was himself
again and able to talk.
"What success, lad?" Captain Austin was eager to know how he had gotten
along.
Jay told him the story; how he had utilized the air hose in excavating
the U-boat and how it now lay all exposed in its hastily improvised
crater.
"Some one had better go down right away and see if they can pry into
that conning tower," he counseled. "No telling when those sands will
commence to shift back again with the undertow."
Immediately Dick Monaghan and Carl Weddigen stepped forward.
"Please, sir, I'd like to take a shot at it," offered Dick.
"Give me a chance, Captain; remember how I got along with the
_Dominion_," pleaded Weddigen.
Other members of the crew who were divers offered to take Jay's place
and the captain for a moment was in a quandary.
"Guess you better go down, Weddigen, and see what you can do by way of
prodding that conning tower open," the _Nemo's_ executive decided. "You
have big powerful arms and good lungs." At the same time, Austin winked
at Jay, thinking Weddigen knew nothing of the plans in the U-boat.
Turning to Dick the captain said:
"I'll send you down after Weddigen works awhile, and we'll see what the
two of you can do."
So Weddigen hastily climbed into his diving suit and made ready to go.
Weddigen went equipped with tools that he hoped to use in forcing an
entrance into the submarine. He took along with him also the extra air
hose since it was possible the sand was shifting again and he might
find it necessary to do some more digging.
After he had gone Jay and Dick engaged in earnest conversation.
"That fellow's not to be trusted," remarked Jay tartly.
"He may undo all that you've done," added Dick.
"Yes, or get into that U-boat and make away with those navy plans." Jay
had seen enough of Weddigen to give him the idea that the big fellow
had ulterior motives behind his activities with the Bridgeford Salvage
Company.
After half an hour's wait Captain Austin told Dick to go ahead and get
ready for a descent to the U-boat.
"See how Weddigen's getting along. Maybe you can recover those plans
yourself."
The captain had confided to the two divers, Jay and Dick, that the
coveted plans were contained in a stout steel box that would be found
in a locker in the submarine's wireless chamber just forward of the
main turret.
Dick was glad of the chance to get the assignment. So far he had not
had an opportunity to prove his ability as a diver to Captain Austin
and he was anxious to make good. What a fine thing if he could be
instrumental in reclaiming for the United States Government the long
lost plans and scientific formulas! It had been hinted that among other
things, the stolen plans included the formula for manufacture of the
deadly gas that U. S. chemists had discovered just before the close of
the war.
"I'll certainly do my level best," soliloquized Dick as he floundered
along on the sea bottom in the direction of the U-boat.
Very soon he came in sight of it. The sun, shining strong on the
surface of the sea, lit up the whole area of clear water so that he was
able to see quite a distance in front of him.
Through the green haze of the sea he discerned suddenly the figure of
another diver. He was dragging after him a long rectangular box of some
kind. Undoubtedly it was Weddigen! But what was he doing and what was
the chest that he dragged with so much effort?
"The plans!" gasped Dick. In an instant it was clearly revealed to him.
Weddigen had succeeded in getting into the submarine and had salvaged
the stolen plans!
What was Weddigen doing now? Dick stopped short in his tracks to watch
the maneuvers of the other diver.